Thursday, July 21, 2011

Crazy like a FOX

I wrote a really long post last week but it disappeared into the youtubes and interwebs, this is will be more succinct. I am trying to be more diligent about this, we will see how it goes

First, from my position at the very top of the social media food chain, the collective liberal exultation over the Murdoch case has crossed into parody, there are two points to make about this, both involve hypocrisy

News of the World employees broke laws and should be punished. Their superiors who were cognizant of the situation should share their fate. The newspaper shutting down is completely justified.

Is the outrage over illegally obtained information? I thought I was told that Julian Assange was a hero for Wikileaks?

Was it over media outlets publishing illegally obtained information? Why are we not trying to put Pinch from the NYT in jail for publishing illegal phone taps of Newt Gingrich in 1996? Or for publishing the Wikileaks data? Or for the publishing of the CIA program tracking financial transactions of suspected terrorists in 2006? Or for revealing the wiretaps on numbers related to KSMs cell phone in 2005?

Was it over holding the head of an organization accountable for the actions of his subordinates? Les Moonves was not dragged before Congress when Dan Rather falsified documents a month before the 2004 election.

It is almost as if these principles that are being referred to as sacrosanct and untouchable are applied completely out of convenience and immediately discarded when no longer needed. This is not about News of the World, this is about silencing Fox, the on media outlet that does not bow at the altar of Obama.

The crux of this matter is the difference between reputation and reality. To hear the left speak they are the ones that value diversity and other people's point of view. This is how they view themselves, when in reality they take any avenue to silence dissension. They try and silence opposing viewpoints through the fairness doctrine, through the talk of our "new tone" and, especially, through the courts. Personally I welcome discussions with smart people who disagree with me. When I was in training at my job that was the most effective way to understand what was going on, when I would suggest a trade my boss would make me defend it from every angle. It was an incredibly effective manner of learning.